I'm Thankful
by Sky Sorceress
Summary: A thanksgiving fic with some Cassie/Marco romance..Spoilers for AM#45


**A/N and Warning: **And the Holiday fics continue. ;) Yes, this has traces of C/M, so rabid J/C fans would be wise to actually read the fic before attacking me...that way you can attack the terrible writing rather than the C/M idea.   
It's not completely necessary, but this might be easier to understand if you read the two previous fics in the Holiday series (Fortune Cookies and Trick or Treat).   
Most importantly, if you haven't read Animorphs #45 yet, you may quickly become lost. ;) Proceed with Spoiler caution. Lastly, Happy Thanksgiving. :) 

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## I'm Thankful 

A leaf fell to the ground, wind pushing it through the opening of Ax's scoop as Cassie entered, shivering slightly under her sweater. Marco, who had been talking so loudly his voice almost eclipsed the noise from the blaring TV, quickly fell silent, still embarrassed by his previous display of emotion in front of her. "Hey Ax, Tobias." she said, smiling, before she spotted Marco. "Hey Marco..I didn't know you were going to be here." 

The last part was said almost apologetically. Marco only nodded. 

Turn down the TV, Ax. Tobias instructed. Cassie, we've asked you here to tell you that, he mockingly cleared his thought-speech voice you have been cordially invited to the Animorphs Thanksgiving party. 

Cassie arched an eyebrow. "The what?" 

"The Animorphs Thanksgiving Party!" Marco said, sitting up indignantly, forgetting any embarrassment in his own brilliance. "It was my idea." 

So feel free to blame him. Tobias said dryly. 

Frankly, Ax said I still do not understand. 

"Well I've never claimed to like the holiday but..."Cassie smiled sweetly. "Ax, Thanksgiving is a day celebrating a feast that happened long ago..between two civilizations. Soon after, one of the civilizations viciously killed the other civilization." 

Marco and Tobias stared at her. 

Ax blinked. And you _celebrate_ this? 

"Welcome to America," Marco said, smirking. "But Ax, Cassie here is missing the point. The true meaning of Thanksgiving." 

I'm guessing you're not about to say time with family, 

"Sorry Bird-boy, don't think so. Besides the two days off of school-" 

"Which don't mean much seeing as you don't exactly go to school anymore," Cassie cut in, Marco carefully ignoring her and continuing 

"-everybody knows that the food is the whole reason for Thanksgiving. It's another holiday giving Americans the excuse to gain back those three pounds they're so proud of losing. Just an excuse to pig out." 

"And a holiday that results in animal abuse...Turkey, anyone?" 

Marco sighed sadly. "Gee Cass, where's your patriotism?" 

A holiday that's an excuse to pig out... Tobias echoed. Sounds like a holiday Ax would make up. 

Yes, I was reading a little about this holiday on the internet. It mentioned many recipes for dead birds. Ax's stalk eyes wavered to Tobias. 

Tobias fluffed his feathers up. Dead _turkeys _Ax, _turkeys._

Marco looked to Cassie. "Puh-lease?" he said before he could stop himself, his voice soft and convincing. "It'll be at elevenish, midnight today ..You have the day off tomorrow so you can catch some sleep then." 

Since neither Ax, Marco or I can exactly celebrate the holiday in a regular way, we decided to have our own Thanksgiving.. It'll be at the Hork-Bajir valley. 

Marco nodded. "We're gonna have all the food and everything!" he said. "And it'll be at midnight, so you can still have Thanksgiving at your place this evening. And Rachel is going, and so is Jake. Erek might even make it..he better anyway, because he said he'd bring the bird." 

Cassie smiled as she watched Marco get uncharacteristically hopeful. "I'll go, I'll go.. But only because I was cordially invited." She grinned. 

~~~ 

Marco sat up straighter on his "chair"... Ak.a the hologram and force field of a chair, courtesy of Erek King. It was a lot less shabby than the boulders he had arranged near the fire. Erek had offered to produce a hologram of some fancy room, but Marco had refused. He wasn't sure why, but he wanted everything about this Thanksgiving- even if at 12:30am it technically wasn't Thanksgiving- to be real. Real but still perfect. He wanted this Thanksgiving to mean something more than just the food. Marco was proud at the success of the night- so far. Proud of the way everybody seemed happy, even though he knew it wasn't his doing. Hell, his pride could even be pushed up to thankful. He was thankful for these people that he loved, despite the fact that it was pain and disaster and nightmares that had really brought them all together and created their bond. 

He added more cranberry sauce to his plate. 

Cassie laid back in her "chair" as she watched the others talk, eat, and laugh. Tobias was in human morph, smiling but looking like he felt a little awkward, and Rachel seemed frustrated about this, although she said nothing directly. She just kept saying "Isn't it nice to be normal like this Tobias?" Her voice would rise a little. "Isn't it nice?" 

Marco's parents looked as if they never wanted to let go of each other, though there was a dark strangled look in the eyes of Marco's mom. The years as a slave hadn't exactly done wonders for her optimism. 

Cassie's eyes wandered passed the warm fire into the shadows, where she saw a tall figure, watching them. 

"Toby?" she called. All eight pairs of eyes (Ax had morphed human) swerved towards the figure, and Toby stepped forward, looking embarrassed. "I'm sorry, it is just..." she began. 

"Why don't you join us, Toby?" Cassie asked, cutting her off. Jake sent her a smile- to Cassie's surprise it looked almost like a smile of gratitude. 

This annoyed her. She hadn't been kind to Toby for _Jake's_ sake. 

"Yeah," Marco said. "Pull up a chair! Er...Erek?" 

Erek laughed. He had been immersed in a conversation about some machine with Marco's dad, but a second later a holographic chair appeared next to Toby. 

Smiling the odd Hork-Bajir smile in thanks, Toby pulled the chair up next to Jake. 

"I'm sorry," she said again. "I should really be with my people...It's just sometimes I feel that even as their leader they will never understand me." 

She said this to the group, but her eyes flickered uncertainly to Jake. 

"I know the feeling," he said quietly to Toby, smiling faintly. Marco and Cassie exchanged glances of puzzlement at this, although the rest hadn't even heard him. What did Jake mean? 

Cassie stared down at her food, trying to hide her hurt. She prided herself on understanding Jake. It was where their bond was. He needed someone to understand, she was there to understand... Or so she had thought. 

She bit her lip, but Jake didn't seem to notice. In fact he was engrossed in a conversation with Toby. Cassie knew it was stupid, but she couldn't help feeling a little twinge of jealous. 

When was the last time she and Jake had had one of those conversations? It had been so long. Jake wasn't the only one with problems- why didn't he help her deal with her's? Why hadn't he been there for her? 

Jake was like a rock to everyone. But lately, he had the perceptiveness of a rock, too. Cassie glanced down at her food, and realized she had angrily stabbed her fork into the pumpkin pie. She smiled faintly. 

"Okay, okay," Marco's father broke into the individual conversations, clapping his hands importantly. "Before..everything, it was tradition at home to go around and say what we're thankful for..." He paused. "Jake, do you want to begin?" 

"Er, sure..." Jake said. "Uh, I'm thankful for being alive. I'm thankful that all of you are alive. I'm thankful that we've held up, and that we're still fighting." 

Toby glanced up, not sure what to say, as she was next. "I am thankful for being free." she said simply, although the words were packed with emotion. Gradually they went around the table to Cassie. 

Cassie thought for a second. 

"I'm thankful for every single one of you... You've helped me so much. You've listened to me lecture. You supported my beliefs. That's what I'm most thankful for." 

It was Marco's turn. He looked very unsure of what to say. 

"Me? Um, I'm thankful for this food." He winked. "I'm thankful for my mom and dad. I'm thankful for..." he trailed off before looking up. "I'm thankful for Cassie," he said suddenly, so confident in contrast to his previous tone. "I'm thankful that Cassie still _has_ her beliefs after the hell we've been through. I'm thankful that she's here to help and listen to us all," he looked at Jake briefly "even when we don't exactly help or listen to her. I'm thankful that she's had the strength to go on, while she struggles with her beliefs." 

There was silence for a few long moments as he finished. Jake was looking at Marco steadily. He looked confused. 

Cassie stared. 

Eventually conversation came back to the table, but Cassie remained silent. Marco wandered off a little later to tend to the fire, and when no one was really looking, she got up to join him. 

He was sitting down, staring into the flames. Cassie kneeled next to him. 

"Thank you, Marco." she said. Marco looked up as he heard her. Her voice sounded so sweet, simple and pure. He turned slightly to watch her. The light from the fire gave her an unnatural beautiful glow. 

"I meant it," he replied finally. 

"I know," Cassie said. They both smiled. 

_~fin ~_

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**End of fic note thingy:** ::sweatdrop:: I know it sucks, but I'm on a deadline.. ;) Look for another one around Christmas..Mwahaha! Review! peas!   
Comments to Skyesorceress@yahoo.com   
Special thanks to Rhi Marzano, who helped me get this out on the big turkey day! 


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